The Wal-Mart Phenomena is interesting. Wal-Mart today is the biggest supplier of goods to the American People, it is the biggest employer and could be said to be the distribution system for the Nation. No wonder all large corporations study its transportation and distribution models, Wal-Mart has won the game. Thanks in good part to a very wise man, who knew his business like the back of his hand.
Many have been very critical of the advances of big box stores and especially Wal-Mart the largest and most successful of all. Why? Well, because when people buy stuff their, the money flows out of town to their corporate offices, rather than circulates in the community or city. The Money Flow out of a city is a problem, of course originally Sam Walton had the right idea if you read his book "Made in America" and look at how he hired people in the area and bought goods from manufacturing companies in the are whenever they existed.
Unfortunately, the model has changed a bit. You see, we live in a Global World now and today we see the issues with money flows to China, same basic problem, same challenge, same thing - larger scale. Most people do not understand how serious this problem is, and it is not Wal-Marts fault, as the company only sells what people buy and Wal-Mart is only one company, all retailers now sell quite a bit of Chinese goods in the United States.
Many US manufacturing companies make stuff there now, not here. Our education system is lacking in getting people to think about these issues. We have economics classes, but few major in Economics, and the Economics 101 basics often white wash the reality. So, often we see citizen's rising up in protest against big box stores in the community, worried about crime, small business failures, and plight. In some regards their concerns are justified and yet many communities have been able to manage these risks and come out the better for it.
Other times it turns to chaos and controversy and if a big box store anchor tenant moves out, then the problems really begin and the urban plight effect starts to take hold. Small business closures in the center are guaranteed and it does drive down real estate values too. Something to contemplate in 2008.
Lance Winslow
Intersting topic. On another note - do you know what happens to all those steel shipping containers used to ship products from China to fill those Wal Mart stores? They dont go back to China to be reused. It is cheaper to build a new one in China than it is to ship the old one back.
There are actually companies designing and building homes using these discarded containers.
Now, if the cost of transporting the goods from China to the US were prohibitively high, the China effect would be reversed. Jobs would return to the US. Money would flow through the community and not out of it.